A Cloudy Place

Arg – it’s no longer SQL Azure, it’s now SQL Database! This article started out as a simple discussion of how to manipulate the SQL Database (was SQL Azure) firewall through REST calls, but on the way Microsoft threw me under the bus by completely changing branding names for what was Azure.

Many organizations accumulate massive quantities of valuable commercial data but don’t have technology in place to make it easily available to data analysts or actionable by business decision-makers. Microsoft’s Windows Azure Marketplace DataMarket provides the infrastructure to syndicate more than 135 free and pay-per-use datasets to the public.

Summertime is around the corner, and while you may be dreaming of sea and sun, how about settling for a day out of the office?

I have seen this question asked many times now: “How do I install third party software on Windows Azure?” This is a reasonably important question to address as Windows Azure applications often need to use third party software components.

Cloud computing has now entered into most executives’ common vernacular. Certain ideas and themes come through and a common misconception is that the cloud is cheap, right? In some circumstances, it is even free (check out Amazon Web Services ‘Free Web Tier’)

This article is really a review of the alternative ways to get started with setting up a database-driven Azure site. I’ll start by using SQL Azure Management Portal and SQL Server Management Studio. Then, I’ll use Visual Studio to create a SQL Azure database (Web edition, 1 GB).

Many of us select cloud computing providers due to elasticity: the ability to launch as many servers as needed to meet the demand, and then shut them down as soon as the wave is over. 

For the past several months I’ve been working on something new. This is a hosted service for maintaining cloud applications cunningly named Red Gate Cloud Services. It’s been live since the beginning of the year and it’s free to try out too.

We illustrated Idelma’s case study in the last article. This article continues from where we left off, looking at how a partner, Ovissia, would provide a recommended solution. Just as a reminder, Idelma had some specific requirements for migration including: cost-effectiveness, no functional changes for the user, and the proprietary CRM system stays on-premise.

Jeff Foster is a Software Engineer working on Red Gate’s SQL Source Control product. Jeff and his team have recently begun investigating the use of Amazon’s EC2 to run engine tests and he was kind enough to sit down and talk about the process.